How to Reinstall a Dell V305W Printer

By Techwalla Contributor

When it becomes necessary to reinstall a Dell V305W printer, "Communications Failure" errors commonly occur. Reinstalling the printer again will correct this issue. Complete removal of the printer driver will ensure that reinstallation is successful and the printer operates error-free.

Things You'll Need

Dell V305W printer driver

Dell V305W printer

Windows PC

USB data cable

Step 1

Boot up the computer and allow the operating system and all startup programs to load fully. Any errors encountered during the boot cycle should be corrected and the PC successfully restarted before continuing.

Step 2

Locate the Printers folder (XP and Vista) or the Printers and Devices folder (Windows 7). Double-click on the “Printer” icon to open the print queue. If any documents are in the queue, remove them. In Windows XP and Vista, open the Control Panel and select “Classic View.” Open the “Administrative Tools” menu. In Windows 7, go to the Control Panel and click on “System and Security.” Double-click the “Services” item in the list of options.

Step 3

Scroll down the list of services and highlight the "Print Spooler" service. In the upper left corner of the dialogue box, click "Stop" to stop the service.

Step 4

Click "My Computer" (XP) or “Computer” (Vista/Windows 7). Click on the primary system disk; typically, this is the “C:” drive. Go to the "Windows->System32->Spool->PRINTERS" folder and delete all the files in this folder. Any pending print jobs from other printers (if you are on a network) will also be deleted.

Step 5

Open the Control Panel. In XP, click "Add and Remove Programs” and uninstall the Dell V305 Printer software. In Vista and Windows 7, open the “Programs and Features” menu and uninstall the Dell V305 printer software.

Step 6

Click "My Computer" (XP) or “Computer” (Vista/Windows 7). Open the operating system disk and navigate to the "Windows->System32->Spool->drivers" folder. On 32-bit systems, open the folder "w32x86" and look for a folder with a single digit name such as "3" or "2". Delete the contents of this folder. DO NOT delete the folder! For 64-bit systems, open the folder "x64" and look for a folder with a single digit name such as "3" or "2". Delete the contents of the folder. DO NOT! delete the folder.

Step 7

Restart the computer. Install the Dell printer drivers following the factory-recommended procedures. If you use the printer on a wireless connection, select that option during the install. If you installed additional printers on this computer, reinstall the drivers for those printers as well.

Step 8

Watch the install carefully and choose the "Web Services Device" or "WSD" option during the wireless setup. This will show up as a different port type in the print server (print folder).

Step 9

Reinstall the Vista driver for your Dell printer if you are running Windows 7. Dell doesn't offer a Windows 7 driver for the V305W at the time of publication. You can find 64-bit drivers on the Support.dell.com website in the "Drivers and Downloads" section.

Tips & Warnings

Uninstalling existing printer drivers is a good idea before you attempt to reinstall. For your Dell printer, download the Dell AIO926 Print Driver Upgrade and run it on your Windows PC. This application is a Dell printer cleanup utility.